According to Niki Lauda, Dutchman Christijan Albers is lucky that his boss is not a red-cap wearing former triple world champion.
Winner of 25 grands prix Lauda, who led Jaguar Racing for a while before returning to his current role as a TV commentator, criticised Spyker for not sacking the 28-year-old race driver following an incident during a pitstop at the recent French grand prix.
The FIA fined Albers (US) $6,800 for recklessly driving away with his fuel hose still attached, but Lauda says F1’s governing body should also have confiscated his Super License.
“I wouldn’t let him start the next race,” Lauda, 58, is quoted as telling the Dutch racing magazine Formule 1 Race Report.
“In all the years I have been around in formula one, never before have I witnessed something as stupid as that.”
Even one of Albers’s own bosses refused to back the struggling Albers, with Mike Gascoyne telling The Times that he was baffled by the error.
“I don’t know why he did that,” Spyker technical boss Gascoyne said. “He’s an experienced driver, he should know what to do.”
